Arizona Boycott Ends With Chicago Vulgarity And Surrender

It had all the dignity of a Filene’s Basement bridal gown sale. It was as uniting as a Westboro Church rally. It was as inspirational as the golden arches of a McDonald’s fast food franchise. It was Obama’s “Let’s Make A Deal” moment.

Many Republican/conservative writers today reacted not with revulsion but with applause for Obama’s remarks. Why shouldn’t they applaud? Obama and his thugs tried all week to sell the notion that Sarah Palin and the Tea Party were to blame for the Arizona shootings. The Big Blog Boys collaborated with the Obama White House to perpetuate the smear. Last night Obama waved a surrender flag on that carefully calculated ploy.

“For the truth is none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped these shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind. Yes, we have to examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future. (Applause.) But what we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other. (Applause.) That we cannot do. (Applause.) That we cannot do.”

How stupid is what passes for the left these days? They have not yet noticed how Obama pushed them under the bus in this latest publicity stunt. Consider: The left has been denouncing Obama’s “moves to the center” since December’s surrender/acceptance of the Bush tax cuts. The left has been denouncing Obama’s lack of fight for two years now. Yet what passes for the left these days is so stupid that it is unable to even see that Obama’s “unity” speech of last night is one further move into the land of surrender.

For Obama not fighting makes a great deal of political sense because it is the right move for a careerist interested only in what advances himself. For the left Obama’s “go along to get along” strategy is a disaster. Call it the politics of the wet noodle. Most people don’t like fighting and name calling and it makes public figures popular when they are seen as uniters not dividers.

For the politically ambitious without principle the saying is “go along to get along.” The trick as Hillary Clinton has put it is to know when to stand your ground and when to reach for common ground. Barney Frank articulated it best when he made the point that the best way to avoid a fight is to surrender to the opposition.

No fighting makes sense for Obama politically. Obama not fighting makes even more sense for Republicans. No wonder wily Republicans thought the Obama speech good. “I surrender” is always sweet to hear across the aisle.

That is not to say that last night should have been a place for Obama to declare war and be obnoxious. But why is the left smiling and declaring victory when last night was their Appomattox Courthouse? The “blame Palin, blame Tea Party” DailyKooks got slapped down with another major Obama capitulation and they are still too dumb to realize once again Obama sold them out to advance himself.

Last night was a time to remember those killed, pray for or encourage the families of those fighting for their lives in hospitals, and in a dignified manner remind the nation that what unites us is greater than what divides us. We did not get that either.

“Since the tragic events in Arizona unfolded on Saturday the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the six victims who were killed and the 14 others who were wounded has quickly become politicized. My own view is that it’s a mistake to politicize this attack.

One of the problems of a free society is that one crazy person can do something like this.

If we took all the steps necessary to prevent this attack we would either not be able to meet with our elected officials or a lot of people we only think are crazy would be in jail — locked up.

All this talk of “watching our language” in public debate runs counter to freedom of speech and ignores the fact that in a country of 300 million people there was only 1 person who didn’t grasp that speech is speech — that you don’t use a gun in a debate.

We can not create a free society in which there is no chance of a tragedy like this.

World leaders are arriving in Washington to attend Richard Holbrooke’s memorial service at the Kennedy Center Friday, which President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are both due to attend.
*************

hat is not to say that last night should have been a place for Obama to declare war and be obnoxious. But why is the left smiling and declaring victory when last night was their Appomattox Courthouse? The “blame Palin, blame Tea Party” DailyKooks got slapped down with another major Obama capitulation and they are still too dumb to realize once again Obama sold them out to advance himself.
_____________

I don’t know about this Admin, it really is just the corrupt Chicago style the fraud has been slinging and getting away with from the beginning as Rickya pointed out on the last post…..

This type of help is really effective as not only does it manages to destroy Obama’s political opponents, it also shields Obama from criticism as his team is not engaged directly in attacking his opponents. This is the most corrupt form of MSM bias there is.

TUCSON, Ariz. – What was billed as a memorial for victims of the Arizona shooting rampage turned into a rollicking rally, leaving some conservative commentators wondering whether President Barack Obama’s speech was a scripted political event. Not so, insisted the White House and host University of Arizona.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday he and other aides didn’t expect the president’s remarks at the school’s basketball arena to receive as much rousing applause as it did. Gibbs said the crowd’s response, at times cheering and shouting, was understandable.

“I think part of the grieving process is celebrating the lives of those that were lost, and celebrating the miracles of those that survived,” he said.

The university said it did the planning with minimal input from the White House. The school paid for the event, including $60,000 for 10,000 T-shirts bearing the words “Together We Thrive.” The shirts were handed out for free. T-shirts. The money will not come student tuition, fees or tax dollars.

Well before Obama arrived, the atmosphere had become celebratory. People lined up for hours, and when the doors finally opened about two hours before the start, a huge cheer went up and the crowd surged into the arena.

With the exception of elected officials, victims and their families, first responders and medical professionals, the capacity crowd of about 14,000 was admitted on a first-come, first-served basis Wednesday, university spokeswoman Jennifer Fitzenberger said.

But the choreographed nature of the event was too much for some.
snip
Despite the celebrations in the rafters, the mood below where the families of the victims, the president and other officials sat was far more somber.

Obama frequently bowed his head, resting his chin on his clasped hands. First lady Michelle Obama wiped tears from her eyes. Families of the victims held each other close as speakers shared personal memories of their loved ones.

The president himself appeared taken aback at the sustained applause he received after his remarks. He waved quickly to the crowd as he left the stage, stood with his head down as the crowd continued to cheer, then reached for his wife, and kissed her several times on the cheek.

A doctor talked to Sanjay Gupta on CNN tonight about the miracle of the eye opening last night and said yes it was very exciting and that she had also done that for her husband. Sanjay of course did not ask him when she opened her eyes for her husband as he did not want to spoil the miracle. CNN loves those Obama miracles.

Has anyone recently watching Bill Clinton’s speech after the OK incident, no clapping, no cheering, no waving, nothing but an complete and absolute empathy for all those innocent people who lost their lives, it was a tribute worthy of them. I saw parts of yesteryday’s event, and it was stunning to watch the cheering, the waving, just jaw-dropping stunning.

Thank you Admin, that was a speech by Clinton worthy for a country in mourning. Even Bush’s speech after 9/11 I felt was done very respectfully and very solemnly for a country in deep mourning. Yesterday, I still cannot get over the waving and the cheering, and to top it all off, t-shirts.

Parents of little Christina Green seem absolutely remarkable. The husband of the woman (Hileman) who took her to the rally is talking about how they are asking after his injured wife and assuring them nothing would change in their friendship.

In Bill Clinton’s video he ends with asking everyone to come to Oklahoma. In Obama’s speech and the event, Jan Brewer got booed and it was branded Tucson and America. Obama is not friends with Arizona. He is still boycotting them.

By the way, if you buy what the salesman in the WH is saying, that a student designed and somehow got financing and approval for the T-shirts and it was all the students idea…look at this picture and tell me what you think is the truth.

Gonzotx, you are so right about BO’s passive aggressive modus operandi — let others do your dirty work and pretend to rise above it to keep your own hands clean. We’ve seen this play out time and time again.

Also, why didn’t BO ask the crowd — as a true leader should — to cool it on the cheers and hoots? Because he wanted the event to prop him up.

One more thing, what organization/ individual associated with the University provided the crass T-shirts? Who could afford such an extravagance? (How or why would anyone even think of T-shirts at a memorial!) And why was the event held at a university (home of BO’s base) to begin with?

Moreover, the funds for the T-shirts — a whopping $60,000 (!) — don’t just fall from the ivory tower. Some committee, department, organization, association, individual from within or outside of the university had to come up with the idea in the first place, allocate/receive such funds, and come up with the slogan. WHERE were the T-shirts manufactured? WHEN was the order placed? Again, WHO thought up that campaign slogan? I imagine once we have some answers we’ll get closer to the WHY of it all.

If the funds did in fact come from the University, why wasn’t a memorial fund set up for the victims instead of campaign T-shirts?

Found this on the Fox News site….it says it all…this was to knock out not only Palin but Hillary as well. It was a consorted effort by Obama and HIS rethugs to do this…its so apparent now its not even funny!

Crazy Horse, how about “Together We Scam”? The claim the White House was not involved in the sloganeering is as believable as the Bush W. White House claiming they had nothing to do with the Mission Accomplished sign.

– Obama wrote the speech himself
– White House had nothing to do with the tshirts

Answer: THEY LIE!

I’m with gonzo – we just saw BO’s style again. A real leader would have come out 4 hours after the shooting (when the vitriol started) and urged people to wait for the facts, that we’re all Americans, not enemies, etc. I believe his people encouraged all the vitriol, and then he just planned to come out after the damage was already done and play the wonderful post-partisan healer (he is nothing if not manipulative and insincere!)

And everyone talking about how to prevent this from happening again – outlaw guns, ban this type, can’t carry within 1000 feet of a lawmaker, etc. The answer is quite simple, and has nothing to do with politics or politicians (other than in the sense they’d have to pass the laws). The guy was pretty obviously a paranoid schizophrenic. Solution: strengthen and fund the mental health resources in the country.

Wanting to avoid this problem again (of a schizophrenic acting out) by solutions that involve guns and politicians, is kind of like attacking Iraq when it was Saudi Arabians who attacked us! They can make all kinds of new gun laws or rules about politicians, but they won’t keep another schizophrenic from acting out – because the solution is wrong…

It sounds like either the college kids came up with the idea for the tshirts, or BO’s 26 y/o speechwriter who groped Hillary’s cardboard cutout came up with the idea.

It’s really long past time for the mature people to take over. Have some kids for energy and new ideas. But don’t have them in decision making capacities! A more mature worker could have patted the little college kids on the head, praised their effort, and then explained all the reasons the tshirts (and audience behavior) was totally inappropriate for a memorial. And then moved on to showing them far better ideas for how to organize a memorial – including not having it in a college auditorium, full of immature college kids.

Trust me, Obama does nothing that is not choreographed. Remember when he addressed the Notre Dame Convocation. He insisted that the cruxifix was covered up. The only thing that made me angrier about the entire sitution was the fact that an esteemed Catholic university would put God second over that hack. As a Catholic, it surely changed my thinking towards Notre Dame University. In fact, over the last three years I wonder about all so-called “Elite” universities. Look what Harvard has given us – Bush, Kerry, Obama, to name a few.

Trust me, Obama does nothing that is not choreographed
——————
Including last night’s news coverage. From local network affiliates to NJN to the evening news, Christina’s funeral could not be covered without showing a minimum of two video clips of Obama’s mention of her. There was coverage of the book written about 9/11/01 kids selling out and the video of Obama mentioning it was shown. There was coverage of Gabrielle’s miracle with a doctor stating that the presence of Pelosi et al in the hospital room likely helped bring about the Congress woman’s amazing response. And the video segment of Obama announcing her progress was shown. Someone arranged (R) NJ Gov. Christie’s presence on GMA yesterday morning and he praised Obama in the highest.

No doubt the dear little girl Christina has been appended to the greatness of Obama, and I suppose, Gabrielle too. I mourn even more to know the dear girl is being used. However, he did undermine his true efforts mightily when he pledged to work so that this democracy will become the one Christina thought it was. 😉

The T-shirts from the pep rally could be bought from obama.com it appears and AZ DNC is the one which arranged for it and students front is a ruse (from NQ comments). I was reading a NYT article on little Christina’s funeral.. Nobody is talking about her without referring to him. This was a para in the NYT article, notice Obama is grouped with the grown ups lest we assume otherwise.

“Christina’s clear-eyed gaze, her enthusiasm — baseball, dance and student council were all passions — and the randomness in which she was killed made her death particularly devastating, for grown-ups, President Obama among them, and for her contemporaries. “

In discussing a House resolution on Thursday to condemn the shooting in Arizona, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi referred to the shooting as a “tragic accident.”

Yesterday, on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, deposed Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-Mars), called the deliberate and premeditated killing of six people – the Tucson massacre – an “accident.” Specifically, Madame said, quote: “This resolution is a fitting tribute. It is a great resolution. Please, read it again and again. Carry those names in your heart. Remember, each of these people because, again, a tragic accident took lives, wounded people in the expression of ideas.”

………………………….

In the same way that accidentally shooting off machine gun rounds into a crowd and the person goes…”oops”

What a stupid thing to say.

I think it there responsible for us to label Nancy Pelosi…a tragic accident also inflicted us by accidental x’s on a ballot.

You may have seen the reports that the AZ memorial t-shirts were the idea of the university not the re-elect O campaign. Follow the link in this comment from Uppity Woman’s site to a letter on the OFA site in 2008:

lorac, on January 14, 2011 at 3:17 AM said:
So the college had the idea for the tshirts? How interesting. There’s a screen shot from 2008 from Organizing for a Fraud that has the same marketing slogan…. WHAT a SMALL WORLD! ROFL

Another commenter on Uppity Woman talked to a reporter about the slogan being used in 2008 on the OPA site and this reply will reinforce what we are up against with the American media:

ProudMilitaryMom, on January 14, 2011 at 10:24 AM said:
Just spoke to this reporter BOB CHRISTIE (AP) who contributed to this articlehttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110114/ap_on_re_us/us_congresswoman_shot_rally
In which they say
“The university said it did the planning with minimal input from the White House. The school paid for the event, including $60,000 for 20,000 T-shirts bearing the words “Together We Thrive,” which were handed out for free. The money will not come student tuition, fees or tax dollars.”

Called to ask him about the OFA screenshot. From the tone- I assume he has seen it. More importantly he told me “We can’t see any connection with a memorial and something that happened two years ago.”

He told me I could draw a connection if I wanted to but he didn’t see it.
Sound familiar? I am just a crazed old lady with a conspiratorial mind.

Jan 14, 2011 (STATE DEPARTMENT RELEASE/ContentWorks via COMTEX) — U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Office of the Spokesman, January 12, 2011 REMARKS Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Town Hall with Omani Civil Society, January 12, 2011 Bait al Zubair Museum, Muscat, Oman MODERATOR: (In Arabic.) Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I’m honored to be given the opportunity to welcome Secretary of State Madam Hillary Clinton this morning. Welcome to Oman, Your Excellency. We appreciate you taking the time to visit with us today. We understand you have a very busy, demanding schedule. So we truly are grateful for your audience this morning…

Ok, so I am now watching the fake in chief’s Tucson speech on youtube. Why is it that every time I here him speak of something found within the Bible, I think it so insincere. He doesn’t sound authentic when he does this. He doesn’t sound authentic with anything he does. Horrible, horrible man. And yes, this memorial service was a pep rally from the get go. I am surprised that they didn’t boo when George Bush’s name was mentioned… really, I am.

Amy Loughner, Jared’s mother is a member of the same Reform synagogue as Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Wrong!

Rumors are buzzing around the Internet that the mother of Tucson suspect, Jared Loughner, is Jewish and a member of the same synagogue as Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

In an exclusive interview with OpEdNews.com, Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, Giffords’ rabbi at Congregation Chaverim said, “We have never had any contact with the Loughner family. They are not members of the congregation and never have been members of the congregation. And I’ve been with the congregation for 40 years, since it’s inception, since I was very young.”

Responding further to the question of whether Loughner or his family are Jewish, Rabbi Aaron stated, “We had a meeting of the Tucson Board of Rabbis. We all looked at our rosters from many years back. No one has ever heard of the family – him, his parents, any of them. I can say with absolute certainty that we do not know him in pretty much the entire affiliated community.”

[snip]

Commenting on the Mother Jones article in which Jared Loughner’s friend, Bryce Tierney, reported that Loughner’s mother was Jewish, Rabbi Aaron said that she did not know Tierney adding “I would be curious about that information, how he got that information, what he knows, how he knows it.”

trixta
January 13th, 2011 at 11:25 pm
Gonzotx, you are so right about BO’s passive aggressive modus operandi — let others do your dirty work and pretend to rise above it to keep your own hands clean. We’ve seen this play out time and time again.

Also, why didn’t BO ask the crowd — as a true leader should — to cool it on the cheers and hoots? Because he wanted the event to prop him up.
&&&&&&&&

If they didn’t want it to come off like a campaign event, they didn’t have to agree to it. Personally, I think the WH coordinated this with the university backchannel.

But even if you assumed the best, that it was the University’s idea, the Prez’s people could have gotten back to them, “We won’t be able to make the large rally at the stadium, but the President will be able to make some solemn remarks in a different setting…”

Can this be milked anymore? Did it have to be an open letter? Did it have to be done at all?

After Tragedy, An Open Letter To Parents From Michelle Obama

In an open letter just sent by the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama exhorts parents to use the Tucson tragedy as a teachable moment. It’s a moment, she writes, for valuable lessons, “about the character of our country, about the values we hold dear, and about finding hope at a time when it seems far away.”

Here’s the full text of the letter.

Dear parents,

Like so many Americans all across the country, Barack and I were shocked and heartbroken by the horrific act of violence committed in Arizona this past weekend. Yesterday, we had the chance to attend a memorial service and meet with some of the families of those who lost their lives, and both of us were deeply moved by their strength and resilience in the face of such unspeakable tragedy.

As parents, an event like this hits home especially hard. It makes our hearts ache for those who lost loved ones. It makes us want to hug our own families a little tighter. And it makes us think about what an event like this says about the world we live in – and the world in which our children will grow up.

In the days and weeks ahead, as we struggle with these issues ourselves, many of us will find that our children are struggling with them as well. The questions my daughters have asked are the same ones that many of your children will have – and they don’t lend themselves to easy answers. But they will provide an opportunity for us as parents to teach some valuable lessons – about the character of our country, about the values we hold dear, and about finding hope at a time when it seems far away.

We can teach our children that here in America, we embrace each other, and support each other, in times of crisis. And we can help them do that in their own small way – whether it’s by sending a letter, or saying a prayer, or just keeping the victims and their families in their thoughts.

We can teach them the value of tolerance – the practice of assuming the best, rather than the worst, about those around us. We can teach them to give others the benefit of the doubt, particularly those with whom they disagree.

We can also teach our children about the tremendous sacrifices made by the men and women who serve our country and by their families. We can explain to them that although we might not always agree with those who represent us, anyone who enters public life does so because they love their country and want to serve it.

Christina Green felt that call. She was just nine years old when she lost her life. But she was at that store that day because she was passionate about serving others. She had just been elected to her school’s student council, and she wanted to meet her Congresswoman and learn more about politics and public life.

And that’s something else we can do for our children – we can tell them about Christina and about how much she wanted to give back. We can tell them about John Roll, a judge with a reputation for fairness; about Dorothy Morris, a devoted wife to her husband, her high school sweetheart, to whom she’d been married for 55 years; about Phyllis Schneck, a great-grandmother who sewed aprons for church fundraisers; about Dorwan Stoddard, a retired construction worker who helped neighbors down on their luck; and about Gabe Zimmerman, who did community outreach for Congresswoman Giffords, working tirelessly to help folks who were struggling, and was engaged to be married next year. We can tell them about the brave men and women who risked their lives that day to save others. And we can work together to honor their legacy by following their example – by embracing our fellow citizens; by standing up for what we believe is right; and by doing our part, however we can, to serve our communities and our country.

crazy horse
January 14th, 2011 at 1:23 am
The origin of ‘Together we Thrive”. The WH had nothing to do with it. Uh huh…….right.
/my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/johnberry_iv/C94H
admin
January 14th, 2011 at 1:49 am
Crazy Horse, how about “Together We Scam”? The claim the White House was not involved in the sloganeering is as believable as the Bush W. White House claiming they had nothing to do with the Mission Accomplished sign.

**********************************************************

these people are shameless…ruthless…there is no level they will not stoop to…any humble person entrusted with honoring the memorial the other night…would have…at the very least…asked the kids to be silent in respect to the dead and their families…instead we have Michelle looking over at O as soon as they walked in when all the clapping began…she looked at him directly as if to say…”that is for you, you should acknowledge it”

that’s when i knew the gig was up…it was going to be the O show

btw…now even the doctors are inserting O and his visit as to the importance of Gabby’s recovery…as if, she must have felt his presence…the one was near…

***********************************

like we have said, this is the O re-election launch…get ready for Daley to try to reconstruct Bill Clinton…prepare to see O seeming to be working hard…more serious…working at his desk…bla, bla, bla…they will try to keep O “above all the silly political games” as they work behind the scenes creating the games and schemes…they are going to try to resuscitate the messiah…the only one that can “take care of us”…they are going to capitalize on O as healer, uniter, father figure…the one who know best…

Most Americans say stronger gun control laws are not the answer to the shootings last weekend of a U.S. congresswoman and the killing of six others.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, taken Monday and Tuesday nights, finds that only 29% of Adults think stricter gun control laws would help prevent shootings like the one in Arizona last Saturday. Sixty-two percent (62%) disagree and say stronger gun control would not make a difference. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Among those who have a gun in their household, 76% say stricter gun control laws would not help, a view shared by a plurality (48%) of those without a gun in the house.

Despite Saturday’s tragedy, opposition to gun control is at a new high. Thirty-six percent (36%) say the United States needs stricter gun control laws, but 56% don’t share that belief and oppose stronger anti-gun laws. Previously, opposition to more gun control has ranged from a high of 51% in July of last year to a low of 37% in April 2007 following the killings at Virginia Tech.

Seventy-three percent (73%) of those who say someone in their household owns a gun oppose stricter gun control laws. Fifty-three percent (53%) of those without a gun in the house favor stricter laws.

he Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 25% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -13 (see trends).

JanH
January 14th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Can this be milked anymore? Did it have to be an open letter? Did it have to be done at all?

***************************************************
Jan,

did she ask for a donation? if not, this sounds like the first draft to the DNC and current O election crew, whatever they call themselves OAF? whatever …their first draft for donations to O’s election…

…and once again…all this while unemployment has shot up…there were more foreclosures last year than in any time previously…and more than a million more foreclosures are projected for 2011…and now we are hearing the rumblings of massive state bankruptcies that can barely stay afloat with what they have and the federal govt is going to force more mandates on them…gas is continuing to go up and food prices are skyrocketing…

recipe for disaster…no work, inflation, increasing homelessness…and what is our MSM focused on…O gave a good speech…who cares? that does nothing to help anyone…just more of the same we saw the last time around…O hero worship…that
what got us where we are today…

I truly hope someone emerges that can honestly take charge because we are in for some very tough times and a rough ride

Obama plans to spend 1 billion on re-election, that should enough to make the ordinary american sick as a dog…may as well put an ad out going “here i can spend 1 billion on me, send me your money then you can all go to hell” or “recession, what recession, i have 1 billion”.

Tea Party Hate – Why It’s NOT Going Away
By LisaB on January 14, 2011 at 11:30 AM in Current Affairs
No Quarter

Suddenly an authentic reform movement, linked to the Republican Party, whose goal simply is to stop the public spending curve, had come to life. This poses a mortal threat to the financial oxygen in the economic ecosystem that the public wing of the Democratic Party has inhabited all these years. – Daniel Henninger, WSJ

The WSJ published a piece by Daniel Henninger today that I think is the best explanation I’ve seen so far for the utter loathing of the tea party by the left.

Henninger begins by saying information stylists (my term) such as Krugman, Dionne, etc came at the Tucson shootings through a particular prism, even though these men did not know anyone involved.

. . . Why attempt the gymnastic logic of asserting that the act of a deranged personality was linked to the tea parties and the American right? Two reasons: Political calculation and personal belief.
The calculation flows from the shock of the midterm elections of November 2010. That was no ordinary election. What voters did has the potential to change the content and direction of the U.S. political system, possibly for a generation.

Only 24 months after Barack Obama’s own historic election and a rising Democratic tide, the country flipped. Not just control of the U.S. House, but deep in the body politic. Republicans now control more state legislative seats than any time since 1928.

What elevated this transfer of power to historic status is that it came atop the birth of a genuine reform movement, the tea parties. Most of the time, election results are the product of complex and changeable sentiments or the candidates’ personalities. What both sides fear most is a genuine movement with focused goals.

Henninger refers to the tea party as a reform movement. I think he’s right. It is a reform movement brought about by the financial crisis and our government’s response. Only a genuine movement could exist without centralized control, and tea partiers are under no central control. But they are remarkably consistent about what concerns them. It’s still the economy, stupid. It always has been.

Henninger goes on to say Democrats expected to take losses in the midterm partly because that’s often the case and partly because it was trying to do some controversial things. However. . .

They expected to take losses in November. What they got instead was Armageddon. Suddenly an authentic reform movement, linked to the Republican Party, whose goal simply is to stop the public spending curve, had come to life. This poses a mortal threat to the financial oxygen in the economic ecosystem that the public wing of the Democratic Party has inhabited all these years.

Who believes this? They do.

And a mortal threat must be stopped by all costs. So, attack, attack, attack. If an outright blow won’t work, try death by a thousand cuts. Whatever works, period. And there is no middle ground. It’s trench warfare, where putting one’s head above ground will get it shot off and where the middle ground is effectively a no-man’s land.

The divide between this strain of the American left and its conservative opponents is about more than politics and policy. It goes back a long way, it is deep, and it will never be bridged. It is cultural, and it explains more than anything the “intensity” that exists now between these two competing camps. (The independent laments: “Can’t we all just get along?” Answer: No.)

Henninger traces this take-no-prisoners sensibility back to a 1964 essay by Richard Hofstadter that still resonates with those on the left today. Henninger claims this essay laid out the method of attacking enemies by labeling them disturbed, extreme or just psychologically off the wall.

After Hofstadter, the American right wasn’t just wrong on policy. Its people were psychologically dangerous and undeserving of holding authority for any public purpose. By this mental geography, the John Birch Society and the tea party are cut from the same backwoods cloth.

But that standard of psychological fitness can be applied to anyone. Just ask “simpleton” Leslie Stahl.

Opposing the left becomes the definition psychologically unfit. Unfit for what? As far as I can see “unfit” gets applied anyone at all – those holding office or just making food choices for children. UNFIT labels allow information stylists and others to equate mental illness with opposition. This belief becomes all encompassing, making it far easier to completely dismiss people rather than engage them on areas of difference. In truth, it’s a classic logical fallacy these people hope you will fall for.

So, will Obama’s call to civility make a difference? In an environment of mortal threat and where opposition equals mental illness? Not. A. Chance.

when i hear O & MO telling PINOS to lay off SP and her family, or tell Clyburn to zip it or hear them tell their Boy and Girl Blogs to knock off insulting and name calling other Americans they have never met but just glob together as teabaggers…

…or when I hear O & MO tell the likes of Bill Maher, Matthews, Olberman, Maddow and the rest of the MSNBC wrecking crew to lay off and tone it down as supposedly Roger Ailes said to those at Fox, then maybe they might earn some credibility…until then, O, MO and the PINOS are still the condescending, scheming hypocrites they were before this tragedy and remain the lecturing class that insists do as I say, not as I do…

when O, MO and their gang take a look in the mirror then there might be a chance for civility…until then, the only people that are being asked to change their tone are people that do not bow the One…

I just watched the video, and it made me so sad inside. This video needs to go far and wide so people KNOW what they are dealing with. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security with these people. They are NUTS… looney tunes nuts! One sided in all respects. I believe what is good for the gooose is good for the gander, and they should be given exactly what they send out. The want their opponents to capitulate, never mind how hateful and mean spirited they are. In other words, it’s ok for them to spout their hate, but don’t do it to them in return. They are definitely sick in the head, and they are the type of people that others need to be protected from. Too bad it seems that there are so many of them out there.

If this was coming from someone else other than MO, I would probably be less critical of it. The last sentence included the words “by standing up for what WE believe is right”, what was that supposed to me, especially with regards to the tone of this letter? Why include those words?

The deal will cover both oil and gas production in Russia’s extensive energy resource areas.

Mr Sechin said it would improve both “trust” and “transparency” between the firms.

Mr Dudley said it was “an historic moment for BP.”

He added that the 5% share swap would be valued at around £5bn.

In terms of BP, it gives them fantastic access to the large oil fields in the Arctic… But it will put the company in a difficult position in America – they won’t like it becoming a quasi-Russian company

Maine’s governor on Friday told a major African American organization to “kiss my butt” after the group complained he wasn’t taking part in Martin Luther King Day events next week.

Paul LePage, a newly elected Republican, is facing criticism from the NAACP for turning down invitations to events marking the MLK holiday on Monday.

“Tell them to kiss my butt,” the governor, who’s been in office two weeks, said in a local TV interview.

The NAACP said earlier this week that LePage had rejected invitations to attend its events while campaigning and since taking office earlier this month.

“We don’t want to misinterpret his intention, but the message we’re getting is that we’re not welcome and we’re not part of the Maine he’s preparing to lead for the next four years,” said Rachel Talbot Ross, state director of the NAACP and president of the NAACP Portland Branch, the Kennebec Journal reported.

LePage said he isn’t doesn’t cater to special interest groups and considers the NAACP to be one.

“They are a special interest – end of story,” he said. “And I’m not going to be held hostage by any special interests.”

He insisted that his decision to skip the MLK Day events had nothing to do with race.

“If they want, they can look at my family picture,” he said. “My son happens to be black, so they can do whatever they’d like about it.”

LePage’s son is adopted.

LePage said he’s simply too busy to attend.

“The fact of the matter there’s only so many hours in a day, so many hours in a week and so much that you can do,” he said.

Newly sworn-in state Attorney General William Schneider said Tuesday that he was ready to add Maine to the list of more than 20 states challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care law.

Schneider would not say when he planned to join the lawsuit, but he indicated an announcement was imminent. At least three other states with newly elected Republican governors and attorney generals announced Tuesday that they too were challenging the law.

That news, along with a pending symbolic vote by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives to repeal the law, prompted Democratic lawmakers in Augusta to suggest Schneider’s decision was part of a coordinated national effort by Republicans to undercut President Barack Obama’s most significant legislative achievement.

Very insightful. I have fealt something similar for quite a bit of time. The Democratic party depends on the government providing the money for all their little pet projects, and thus the support generated from the use of the American taxpayer’s money to pay for them. Without this money, they are nothing because they stand for spending money in an unfettered way. Now here comes the tea party supporters who want to take that blank check away (the power of their spending taxpayers monies as they see fit), and that is a direct threat to their survival. Of course they are not going to take that well. This is where Bill Clinton did good. I was willing to pull back on spending, and to get the country’s economic house in order. The political left could give a rat’s ass about controlling spending because they are all about spend, spend, spend until the end.

Missouri’s Ann Wagner just withdrew from the RNC chairmanship race. She released her supporters without making an endorsement, saying only that they should do what they believe is right in their hearts.

“It is time that this committee heal and unify and remember that it is our job to beat Barack Obama in 2012,” she said.

President Obama to ease travel restrictions to Cuba, allow more U.S. cash to island.

Source: Miami Herald

The Obama administration Friday said it will allow for more U.S. travel to Cuba, making it easier for schools, churches and cultural groups to visit the island.

A senior Obama official told The Miami Herald the much-expected move to expand cultural, religious and educational travel to Cuba is part of the administration’s continuing “effort to support the Cuban people’s desire to freely determine their own future.

President Barack Obama is also restoring the amount of money ($2,000) that can be sent to nonfamily members to the level they were at during part of the Clinton and Bush administrations. There will be a quarterly limit on the amount that any American can send: $500 per quarter to “support private economic activity.”

The administration also will restore the broader “people-to-people” category of travel, which allows “purposeful” visits to increase contacts between U.S. and Cuban citizens.

[snip]

“The Tampa Bay region has one of the highest Cuban-American populations in this country, but for too long, families have had to travel to Miami in order to get to Cuba,” said Castor, who sent a letter to Obama before he took office, “requesting a fresh look at U.S.-Cuban relations and lifting travel restrictions for families.”

[snip] (and under the radar, Obama issues another EX-Order)

“The White House said the changes do not require congressional approval and the changes will be published in the Federal Register.

“You are one of the few experts on the subject”
A Secret Service study of political assassins in the US concludes that the major motivation is a desire for fame, not political goals.

The study found 83 people in jail who’d attempted or completed political assassination and interviewed them (the subject line is part of the pitch to get them to talk about their motives) and researched what could be found out about them. A major motivation turned out to be wanting to be famous rather than invisible.

Sanders warns President Obama not to agree with GOP on Social Security benefit cuts.

Source: The Hill

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Independent from Vermont, is pressing President Obama to keep his campaign promise not to cut Social Security benefits in a possible deal with Republicans.

Sanders has joined a lobbying campaign by more than 200 labor unions and liberal groups pressing Obama to make a strong statement against cutting Social Security benefits in his State of the Union address, scheduled for Jan. 25.

These groups fear that Obama may agree to cuts to Social Security in exchange for Republican support for raising the debt ceiling later this winter or as part of a broad agreement to reduce the deficit.

“I urge you to once again make clear to the American people that under your watch we will not cut Social Security benefits, raise the retirement age or privatize this critical program,” Sanders wrote in a letter to Obama. “Social Security is a promise that we cannot and must not break.”

Gee, couldn’t see this comning, America got punk’ed by Russia because of Waffles. So what was the point of this entire treaty? We have to reduce our weaponery, and if the Russians “feel threatened by the West” they will then withdraw?
This is exactly what Senator Kyle was warning about.

As for the new RNC chairman, I liked Micheal Steele, and would have been happy to see a woman lead the RNC, I don’t believe a woman has even led either party’s organization.

If the new RNC actually said what was posted above, he needs to 100% apologize for it and do no such nonsense again!

I wonder if the repubs even realise, independents are just that independents, they are not repubs, many millions may be consitutional conservatives, but the loyalty is to America and the US Consitution, it is not towards the RNC. I’m going to guess they will stop the true reformers from ever getting the nominations, i.e. Sarah Palin.

Just heard wonderful news that the docs say Rep. Giffords is recovering well. Hope all the victims have a speedy recovery.

Went to Ace’s website, that website is saying it seems the new RNC chairman was saying “Obama” and in the context of what he was speaking about, i.e. the Taliban and the Afghanistan war, he meant to say “Osama” Bin Laden, and kept saying “Obama”.

Imo better gun control is the best method — whether that means tighter laws or better use of the laws we have already. I think it’s already been posted that in Arizona law anyone could have gotten the mental health people to interview Loughner, and that would have gone on his record and prevented him passing the background check.

Better mental health services would be good, but imo in preventing gun rampages it’s better to keep anyone with a criminal record etc from getting a semi-automatic gun. Shouldn’t need a diagnosis.

I doubt this has ended Palin’s political career or her influence considering only 15% of Americans, based on the new Quinnipac poll consider political rhetoric as the cause of this lunatic nutjob killing and hurting innocent people.

Oh well, life comes along and you either seize or you lose it…I simply chose to seize it!

I’ll have to go look at Hillary’s new do also. After seeing her in person from not more than 2 feet away…the pics these jerks print never do her justice..Hillary is a beautiful woman! It seems most of the men I see her talking to are enamored with her too. Its the BIG Media guys who have it in for her! They must be an ignorant group because they can’t stand a smart woman…geez!

The imam and his wife behind a controversial plan to build a Muslim cultural center and mosque near the site of New York’s September 11 attack are stepping down as leaders of the project, the center said on Friday….

“Imam Feisal and Daisy Khan will not be speaking on behalf of Park51, nor will they be raising funds for the project,” Park51 said in a statement.

Tim,
if someone asked me who is the current biggest whore…media whore…on TV, I would have to say Joe Scarborough without missing a beat…and second would be Donny Deutch…and the two of them together, well I can’t even use the word here…

Joe S must be making really big $$$ at MSNBC, which as stated previously, MSNBC currently is kissing the butt for the left…

if you were to go back to the Bush years you would likely see Matthews glad handing with Tom Delay and calling Gordon Liddy “his friend” as in after a chuckling interview saying “Thank you, my friend”

during those days I would scream at the TV, why don’t you have all these young, articulate democrats on, but they could not buy a seat on MSNBC…it was all anti Gore and anti Clinton 24/7 at various times…

MSNBC is the worst in corporate media above and beyond all the rest…and Joe S with all his bluster is the king of the loudmouth and suck up these days…

The secretary of State has wrested control of USAID and influence over billions in foreign assistance. Tara McKelvey talks to the organization’s new head—dubbed her “minion,” by one—about their agenda.

The Foggy Bottom Smackdown, as it is known in Washington, quietly unfolded in recent weeks. Round One went to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for taking away power that administrators of a rival agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, had managed to hold onto during the Bush administration. Even worse, Rajiv Shah, the new head of USAID, is a Hillary “minion,” as one insider puts it, who has hardly put up a fight.

snip

Not surprisingly, many State Department staffers look down on the do-gooders. “We used to laugh about it,” says a senior-level official who had previously worked on national-security issues for the Bush administration. “We’d hear USAID people saying, ‘We’re an independent organization reporting to the secretary of State,’ and we’d say, ‘Oh-k-a-a-a-a-y.’” For these State Department officials, Hillary Clinton, who had served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was a godsend. “When Clinton was nominated to secretary, those of us opposed to a Department of Development said, ‘Game over.’”

snip

Clinton’s December report on foreign policy, known as the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, granted Shah authority over initiatives, such as an agricultural program called Feed the Future, for example, yet the report also ensured his budget would remain under the State Department. Overall, USAID lost ground. “There’s no fighting against Hillary Clinton in this environment,” says Brookings’ Noam Unger, who studies the U.S. policies of foreign assistance. “It doesn’t happen.”

Development work directly linked to strategic interests shows a dodgy rate of success, and there is another question: Is this the kind of country Americans want? The U.S. recently pulled out of one disastrous war and is currently enmeshed in another, and altruism has benefits: Helping people because it is the right thing to do, not because it serves our interests, might make us feel a little less crummy about ourselves.

John F’n Kerry: Hey, We Should Pass My Cap & Tax Act To Honor The Victims of Tucson
—Ace

If it looks like a ghoul, talks like a ghoul, and walks like a ghoul, you may be dealing with a ghoul.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said in a speech at the left-leaning policy think tank Center for American Progress that working in a bipartisan manner on infrastructure and clean energy could help overcome the “divisive political rhetoric” in the wake of the Tucson tragedy.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said in a speech at the left-leaning policy think tank Center for American Progress that working in a bipartisan manner on infrastructure and clean energy could help overcome the “divisive political rhetoric” in the wake of the Tucson tragedy.

=============

Hm? Who care whether we overcome nuts getting guns or nuts walking around loose — just so we overcome the opposition’s ‘rhetoric’?

Ron Panzer, founder of the Hospice Patients Alliance [formed in August of 1998, much more is available at their web site] says that U.S. government rules, which supposedly protect patient privacy, have created a climate of fear among medical personnel to prevent them from reporting deliberate killing of hospice patients.

Panzer has received masses of complaints and pleas for help from patients and their families. The institutions are not fulfilling the gentler and useful function of hospice to care for the incurable and terminal patient. He says that tens of thousands of patients who are not otherwise “near death” are being killed in private institutions, to decrease their costs and increase profits, while the government “saves money” by not having to contribute to patients’ care in hospitals. Panzer warns that the rationing designed into Obamacare will greatly intensify the problem.

In the draft of a forthcoming book, How Hospices Hide the Killings, Panzer says that HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) rules, in effect threaten jail and huge fines for reporting crimes against patients.

Panzer writes,

“Fear! That’s what HIPAA is all about. Just like the fear created in Nazi Germany when people were terrified, not just “afraid,” to look this way or that, feared to be perceived as a Jew, a homosexual, a gypsy, a revolutionary, a troublemaker of any sort. So, they all became “sheep,” and that is how the people in our country have become, like sheep, afraid that their slightest move to speak out will find them out of a job, fined, even imprisoned.

“Nurses, doctors and others are now liable for [jail time and] fines up to $40,000 or more for certain HIPAA violations. These fines would destroy many of them financially. Some would lose their jobs.”

In order to report and document instances of crimes against patients — such as “terminal sedation” of those who are not terminally ill — a staff member would have to provide certain patient information. The HIPAA statute officially allows for such reporting to regulating agencies — not to the public —, but Panzer says that in practice no prosecutions of abusers occur and potential whistleblowers are terrified into silence.

To test the reality and intent behind the HIPAA statute, Panzer himself put in the very first complaint ever filed under HIPAA about violation of patient privacy. The case involved Florida Suncoast Hospice (originally called Elisabeth Kubler Ross Hospice, after its founder, the notorious death cultist). Suncoast was distributing a hospice software program that displayed on “help screens” data about its real patients — their names, addresses, diagnoses.

The U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which is supposed to act on HIPAA filings, sat on Panzer’s complaint for three years. OCR then turned it over to the Justice Department, which also did nothing.

Just listening to Hillary makes me wish even more that she was potus. If it had been Hillary at the memorial for the Tucson victims, you can be sure the event would have been dignified and not about re-election.

When US State Secretary Hillary Clinton met Bill, it was bit like Harry met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle all rolled into one. For her it was ‘love at first sight’ but he was really shy and needed a little coaxing.

Sharing her ‘love story’ with Zayed University female students during an interview for a TV talk show in Abu Dhabi recently, Hillary offered some delightful anecdotes of the early days when the celebrity couple met at their law college. It was all a little soulful with them staring at each other but neither making an approach which, of course, most of us men can identify with.

She said she finally took the initiative and introduced herself to the young and good-looking Clinton. “I was walking from one class to another going through a boundary where they have these vending machines for chocolates and candies, and I heard this voice in southern accent saying ‘Not only that, we also grow the largest watermelons in the world’. I asked my friend who that was and said he was Bill Clinton from Arkansas State.”

Hillary said she has been seeing Bill in the campus but never been introduced to him. “I saw him watching me all the time. Yes! He was incredibly handsome. And this is how it started, and we finally talked, we both ended up teaching at Law School in Arkansas and got married,” she explained.

Again, it is usually the girl who breaks the ice because the guy is so scared of being laughed off or rebuffed his ego can’t handle it. Nothing has changed since then.

“I finally said to him, we can’t just keep glancing at each other, you have something to say, let’s just say it. Always remember, there is never enough opportunity to express love.”

Dressed in a stunning black suit set off with white pearls, she was in an extremely friendly mood as she took on a barrage of questions from the students.

Though the audience included a large number of male students, government officials and local media, she preferred to take more questions from female students and was keen to know more about women life in the UAE and the region as a whole.

Few people know this but Bill Clinton is quite the musician. “He is an excellent saxophone player and loves music a lot. He had little time to practise, especially during his presidency. When had time, he was always training in a small room at home.”

Clinton also said she was happy for their daughter Chelsea. “I am extremely happy with her life. She found a perfect match,” Clinton said of Chelsea’s husband Marc Mezvinsky, an investment banker.

Samantha Power, a Holbrooke protege currently serving as a National Security Council Adviser, said Holbrooke “taught us that love and loyalty are the foundation of all else.” She also recounted the scene in the ambulance as he was taken to the hospital with a torn aorta.

“As he rode to to the hospital, he kept saying over and over again, there are so many people I love. There are so many people I love.”

I find this a pretty useless endevor. Sitting together just for a photo op is stupid and pointless. People like Hillary could pull this off because she has a history of working with conservatives, she has a proven record.

there are real differences in how moderate/conservative dems as well as just conservatives in general view the country and the direction it should be in, and then the rapid Obot liberals. Sitting together is stupid, especially when the man speaking, Waffles, will not be bi-partisan, heck this is the same man who is allergic to telling the truth about everything and anything, calling repubs “hostage takers”.

Shoving a rationing_”healthcare” bill down on America and then sitting together as a kumbya moment is a load of crap. Just my humble opinion.

If, stepping back and looking at our situation from a broader perspective, the above seems it may be an accurate description, then I think this 25 minute interview may be of great interest. The big media are always tweaking, or spinning perspectives to suit the intentions of the financial empire. Here, an untweaking and unspining, and an introduction into proposed solutions for our dizzying dilemma.

FYI…try to catch on C-Span first Bill’s tribute, then Hillary closes the Holbrooke Memorial Service…now that is a memorial serice honoring the beloved person who has passed…O is in the audience sitting with Hill and Bill and being “schooled”, if you will…

you cannot hear a pin drop as Bill and next Hillary speak of the Richard Holbrooke they knew…the audience sits breathlessly waiting to hear the punch line or memory recalled…and often laughs together at the image Bill and Hill create describing Richard, their friend…

very poignant…but beyond that it becomes so obvious what a treasure both Bill and Hillary are to our country…

I can’t understand why newly elected politicians (who won by campaigning against Obama and his ideas) would want to sit in a “bipartisan” fashion at the state of the union, particularly when they have been voicing straightforward plans to dismantle Obamacare etc. I’m not saying they should be nasty at the event, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with sitting with your own party members as the loyal opposition. In reality, even if Dems and Repubs end up being scattered throughout the chamber rather than sitting as a party, do they really believe that will stop partisan clapping, cheering and/or pointed silences by various members during Obama’s speech?

I can’t understand why newly elected politicians (who won by campaigning against Obama and his ideas) would want to sit in a “bipartisan” fashion at the state of the union, particularly when they have been voicing straightforward plans to dismantle Obamacare etc. I’m not saying they should be nasty at the event, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with sitting with your own party members as the loyal opposition. In reality, even if Dems and Repubs end up being scattered throughout the chamber rather than sitting as a party, do they really believe that will stop partisan clapping, cheering and/or pointed silences by various members during Obama’s speech?

************************************

American Gal…this is the beginning of the Obama-Daley-Dems 2012 Re-election ROPE-A-DOPE Strategy…

that is not completely original on my part…it is the best phrase out of all the back and forth analysis we have had all week…it comes at the end of Peggy Noonan’s WSJ article…

I can’t understand why newly elected politicians (who won by campaigning against Obama and his ideas) would want to sit in a “bipartisan” fashion at the state of the union

===========

Do they want to, as most of the new ones are GOP?

I bet it’s the DEms who are pushing the idea. Remember when Obama was campaigning, he made a speech about at the last STOTU sometimes one half would stand and sometimes the other half would, and HE wanted to get in so BOTH halves would stand.

“How unfortunate that some have chosen to politicize these murders.” Yes it is. And the culprits are the usual suspects who could find no other way to take down Sarah. And who are the culprits? The usual suspects: CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, NYT, WASHPO. The most serious offenders are the first two–CNN and MSNBC–left wing hate machines. When they were accused of promoting a blood libel–which they did, these miscreants defaulted to the anti semitic accusation, only to be repudiated on that score by a prominent rabbi. Big media has shit in its mess kit, and the stench pervades everything they do.

Sarah Palin Is Right About ‘Blood Libel’
Judaism rejects the idea of collective responsibility for murder.
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By SHMULEY BOTEACH

The term “blood libel”—which Sarah Palin invoked this week to describe the suggestions by journalists and politicians that conservative figures like herself are responsible for last weekend’s shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz.—is fraught with perilous meaning in Jewish history.

The term connotes the earliest accusations that Jews killed Jesus and enthusiastically embraced responsibility for his murder, telling Pontius Pilate, “His blood be upon us and our children” (Matthew 27:25). Thus was born the legend of Jewish bloodlust and of Hebrew ritual use of Christian blood for sacramental purposes. The term was later used more specifically to describe accusations against Jews—primarily in Europe—of sacrificing kidnapped Christian children to use their blood in the baking of Passover matzos.

Sarah Palin responds to allegations that violent political rhetoric played a role in the attempted assassination of Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, saying “irresponsible” news pundits were creating a “blood libel” that risked further violence. Courtesy NewsCore.

The Benedictine monk Thomas of Monmouth is generally credited with having popularized the blood libel in his “Life of the Martyr William from Norwich,” written in 1173 about a young boy who was found stabbed to death. Thomas quoted a servant woman who said she witnessed Jews lacerating the boy’s head with thorns, crucifying him, and piercing his side. While William was canonized, the Jews of Norwich fared less well. On Feb. 6, 1190, they were all found slaughtered in their homes, save those who escaped to the local tower and committed mass suicide.

Despite the strong association of the term with collective Jewish guilt and concomitant slaughter, Sarah Palin has every right to use it. The expression may be used whenever an amorphous mass is collectively accused of being murderers or accessories to murder.

The abominable element of the blood libel is not that it was used to accuse Jews, but that it was used to accuse innocent Jews—their innocence, rather than their Jewishness, being the operative point. Had the Jews been guilty of any of these heinous acts, the charge would not have been a libel.

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Despite the strong associations of the term, Sarah Palin has every right to use it.

Jews did not kill Jesus. As the Roman historian Tacitus makes clear, he was murdered by Pontius Pilate, whose reign of terror in ancient Judea was so excessive, even by Roman standards, that (according to the Roman-Jewish chronicler Josephus) Rome recalled him in the year 36 due to his sadistic practices. King Herod Agrippa I, writing to the Emperor Caligula, noted Pilate’s “acts of violence, plunderings . . . and continual murder of persons untried and uncondemned, and his never-ending, endless, and unbelievable cruelties, gratuitous and most grievous inhumanity.”

Murder is humanity’s most severe sin, and it is trivialized when an innocent party is accused of the crime—especially when that party is a collective too numerous to be defended individually. If Jews have learned anything in their long history, it is that a false indictment of murder against any group threatens every group. As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Indeed, the belief that the concept of blood libel applies only to Jews is itself a form of reverse discrimination that should be dismissed.

Judaism rejects the idea of collective responsibility for murder, as the Hebrew Bible condemns accusations of collective guilt against Jew and non-Jew alike. “The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him” (Ezekiel 18).

How unfortunate that some have chosen to compound a national tragedy by politicizing the murder of six innocent lives and the attempted assassination of a congresswoman.

To be sure, America should embrace civil political discourse for its own sake, and no political faction should engage in demonizing rhetoric. But promoting this high principle by simultaneously violating it and engaging in a blood libel against innocent parties is both irresponsible and immoral.

Rabbi Boteach is the author of “Honoring the Child Spirit: Inspiration and Learning from Our Children” (Vanguard, 2011). He will shortly publish a book on the Jewishness of Jesus and his murder at Roman hands.

Politicize not as left vs. right, or progressive vs. conservative as popularly conceived, but politicize in the sense of molding popular thinking into being intimated into not confronting the status quo of bailouts for the financial elite with taxpayers money, and policies of austerity (sorry, no money to treat your cancer if you are elderly or poor–the money is needed to maintain the financial empire). It is about terrorizing those who oppose the gradual imposition of fascist policies on the people.

The principle-based plans of Franklin Delano Roosevelt extended across many generations; so do the unprincipled and immoral plans of such as the Rothschilds and the Morgans, for example, and the latter are quite happy to keep the population addressing the daily outrages (and entertainments) and never seeing beyond.

That’s the way I see it. I’d be more than happy to be confronted with a counter argument, or have the weakness of my argument pointed out, because I don’t understand people’s thinking on this.

Other precedents and support for ‘blood libel’ as a US political term. Apparently no one objected to the term on those occasions, even though the Salon examples sound like the sort of leisurely elite talk shows where objection would have fitted in well.

From Salon:

Mike Barnicle said that the Swift Boaters’ accusation against Kerry was a blood libel.

Tony Blankley said that a Time report on a possible massacre of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines was being used as a blood libel against the military, “a propoganda catastrophe” for the US.

Tucker Carlson said that an accusation against Ashcroft was a blood libel being resurrected by the Center for American Progress (accusing him of advance knowledge of the 9/11 attack).

Worth reading Salon for the context of these usages. The speakers all sound like they’re using a familiar term in a familiar sense.

Since 1773, maybe.

—————-

What Rove is giving voice to here is nothing less than the new blood libel of our age: that those who oppose the Bush Administration’s unconstitutional actions are opening the door to a new 9/11. The implication is clear: anyone who speaks up for the Constitution is working for the death of innocent Americans.
mathaba.net/news/?x=542246
By Chris Floyd, the author of Burlesque: The Secret History of the Bush Regime

I googled for anyone objecting to Floyd’s use of the term, but found none.

——————

Lost the cite on this:

In fact, as Jim Geraghty of National Review Online documents, the use of the term “blood libel” in political discourse is common both on the left and the right to describe incendiary false accusations which tend to blame a person for inciting violence and making the person a target of violence.
Much like the use of the term “holocaust” (e.g., nuclear holocaust) is not used in the strict sense of The Holocaust, the use of the term “blood libel” does not offend the traditional meaning of the term.
The looser, more modern usage of the term certainly seems to fit here.

——————-

Support and disapproval:
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League:
“While the term ‘blood-libel’ has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused, we wish that Palin had used another phrase, instead of one so fraught with pain in Jewish history.”
politico.com/news/stories/0111/47490.html

Please I beg of thee find the newt statements on Greta about the Iowa caucas delivered on 1/13.
I beseech
implore
ask
beg
and then implore again you to please find the links. I tried– no luck. It was repugnant. I royally despise newt, in fact I pray that the next president demands dna testing as to whether gibbs is his illiterate(intentional as when someone can not read the writing on the wall) offspring.

ohanson
thank you. Exactly what I was looking for.
I despise newt and he celebrates the Iowa caucus as pre-internet they were able to game the system and thus let the political parties control the outcome.
No more we know what happenned. He is a vile pig.
In fact the only thing that could make me vote for bambi would be if he was up against newt. Thousands of complaints have been filed about the gaming of the caucus system and this man claims to want to be president. Give me a fucking break. The man is a jackass. Nurses, waitresses do not have the luxury of switching a shift or taking a day off.

When I can, I read about six different blogs/day. I have not read one mention of newt and justifying the Iowa abuses. Confounds me as it seemed to me that the DNC games is what started this all. Guess maybe people are exhausted politically after the Arizona tragedy. I wonder if I am alone in thinking that media response to the event was a thousand times more perverse than the actual incidence. I am writing my Senator tomorrow to insist that all competitive sports be stopped. Beginning with the Super Bowl. And then I am going to demand that the Kmart wanna be department story be closed. The name in and of itself invokes violence.

I am writing my Senator tomorrow to insist that all competitive sports be stopped. Beginning with the Super Bowl. And then I am going to demand that the Kmart wanna be department story be closed. The name in and of itself invokes violence.

=============

LOL! Do you mean Target stores? That’s how the Democratic Natl Committed excused their putting target symbols on a map similar to Palin’s.

[A] nearly identical map, included in a Democratic Leadership Committee publication in 2004, featured nine bullseyes over regions where Republican candidates were considered vulnerable that year, and was accompanied by a caption reading: TARGETING STRATEGY. A smaller caption, beneath the bullseyes, read: BEHIND ENEMY LINES. The map illustrated an article on campaign strategy by Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute…
www dot foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/10/arizona-massacre-prompts-political-cheap-shots/

Lost this cite:
“The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, for example, used red bull’s eyes on a map to show the GOP candidates in its sights. Ryan Rudominer, a spokesman for the DCCC, told the Palm Beach Post over the weekend that the Democratic map was not threatening since it used an image that is also associated with Target, the national retail chain.”

Charles M. Blow on the The Tucson Witch Hunt.
“You can’t claim the higher ground in a pit of quicksand. Concocting connections to advance an argument actually weakens it. The argument for tonal moderation has been done a tremendous disservice by those who sought to score political points in the absence of proof.”

Justice to all, service to people and a love that liberates others.
January 15 marks the birthday anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King
.
Edited version of Martin Luther King’s April 1967 “Beyond Vietnam” speech.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryp27pRiKOk&feature=related
A year to the day after this speech, he was shot and killed, 44 years ago.

A link to the full audio and text: remove the double space: http ://tinyurl.com/67e7ltc

“The argument for tonal moderation has been done a tremendous disservice by those who sought to score political points in the absence of proof.”

We shouldn’t forget that an absence of tonal moderation (e.g. having people at each others throats) serves the interests of some. Let’s you and him fight is a very old tactic. The best way I can see to overcome it is to be aware of it and to adopt a policy of trying to avoid all fights and wars that are not absolutely necessary.

Henry, It escaped my notice that the newt interview was only a day or two old. I just ignore that crap; perhaps people wiser than I just laugh at it. But I agree with your observations, and suppose most others here would too.

You said, “I wonder if I am alone in thinking that media response to the event was a thousand times more perverse than the actual incidence.”

Not entirely alone…

The attack itself is a criminal atrocity. Then you have what the press is doing as an official line. LaRouche said that what the press is doing in attacking Sarah Palin is as bad a crime as the crime itself.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is putting education overhaul at the forefront of his agenda as he prepares for his State of the Union address and adjusts to the new reality of a divided government. But trouble signs are already emerging.

Despite a bipartisan consensus in favor of more flexibility for students and teachers, political pressures from the coming 2012 presidential campaign and disputes over timing, money and scope loom over a debate affecting millions – the overdue renewal of the nation’s governing education law, known as No Child Left Behind.

For all the talk in Washington that education might offer the best chance for the White House to work with Republicans, any consensus could swiftly evaporate in the capital’s pitiless political crosscurrents, leaving the debate for another day, perhaps even another presidency.

African american opponents in Chicago blame Rahm for Obama failing African American ehnhancement.

“Now Emanuel’s rivals are trying to turn those presidential ties against him. African American and Hispanic leaders inside and outside Chicago are lining up against Emanuel as a way to vent their long-simmering complaints that Obama has not done enough to help their communities. In recent weeks, Obama’s record as president has become a major undercurrent in the campaign.

Rep. Bobby Rush (D), whose district includes Chicago’s South Side and who defeated Obama in a bruising 2000 House primary, said many of his colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus “harbor major resentment” against Emanuel for what they see as his lack of concern about minority issues. That, Rush said, has made Emanuel a “convenient target” for broader frustrations with the White House.

“For those who don’t feel comfortable criticizing the king, it’s the king’s counsel that you aim your wrath at,” said Rush, describing the tensions as “the wreckage around Rahm’s ankles.” ..

Newt defending the Iowa caucuses: Barack Obama showed how the caucuses could be gamed and manipulated to allow a candidate who was far back in the race to be propelled to the front. That’s why Newt and other repubs want to keep it the same. Now they have a blueprint for using that system. It will be interesting to watch them and Obama fight it out twisting the caucuses in 2012. The losers will of course be the voters, again.

Obama and his apologists told us what they were going to do after the last election. They said it was not obama’s policies that cost them the election, but that his ‘message’ did not get out there, so the dense populace did not understand what a great leader he was. So, now they are stampeding all forms of media screaming the dems ‘message’, going on the attack and discrediting anyone who does not support them. The whole slimy blame the right wing for the shootings campaign was blared at the loudest pitch they could manage. It remains to be seen if it actually worked, but it is just the beginning. It could have been cut off at the knees if some of the MSM and the repubs had loudly called it out, but instead most repubs went guiet. Sarah Palin was the only one who came out and fought hard against it and she is being savaged. That scenario is being replayed everywhere in the airwaves, blogs and newsprint. A few tiny voices are fighting back but there has to be more and soon, or we will subjected to this until the big O is re-elected. Score one for the dems, but don’t count the repubs out since this has been their gameplan for a long time. Will they reclaim it?

Obots will storm the caucuses for the weakest Republican against Obama and make him/her win. Doesn’t Newt know that? It is like Rush Limbaugh telling his people to go vote in the primary against Hillary.

BigCatLover
January 15th, 2011 at 11:25 am
Newt defending the Iowa caucuses: Barack Obama showed how the caucuses could be gamed and manipulated to allow a candidate who was far back in the race to be propelled to the front. That’s why Newt and other repubs want to keep it the same. Now they have a blueprint for using that system. It will be interesting to watch them and Obama fight it out twisting the caucuses in 2012. The losers will of course be the voters, again.
__________________________

Absolutely, spot on- As Newt would say, “Why fix something that is NOT broken?” (and giggle about fraud.)
____________________

Absolutely, spot on- As Newt would say, “Why fix something that is NOT broken?” (and giggle about fraud.)
____________________

Perhaps no one caught Newt’s suggestion on Ohanson’s Fox video about handling the border and illegals entering the country. He suggests handing the government’s responsibility of coming up with a “policy” for immigration/illegals working in the US over to AMEX and corporate interests. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing when he said that… AMEX, in case people aren’t aware has gone into the banking business. I got a notice a few weeks ago, asking if I would like opening a “savings account” with them that is insured by the fdic bearing an interest rate of 1.3% annually.

The subtlety of Newt’s suggestion of having Banks taking over our Immigration policy is leading us again towards Global Governance, which in fact will put the USA under the thumbs of the IMF and the decision making elites who run the IMF like Soros, the Rothschilds etc.. Absolutely removing citizens rights and that of the sovereignty of the United States from running our own country, as we always have under the Constitution and the freedoms fought for by our Founding Fathers and every soldier from colonial times including our sons, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers fighting the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What Newt and the Republican Neocons are proposing about banks handling Immigration in this country, is further proof the Republicans are ‘ALL IN’ bed with Obama and the Soros agenda. Phuck him and the Republican party he rode in on!

Mrs. Smith,
What I can’t believe is there are folks that believe the rethugs were the ones who put Obama in the driver’s seat. It was a consorted effort by the left and the republicans to keep the Clinton’s out of office. I think they blackmailed (bodily harm) them into not fighting. This is was all planned out…just listen to Newt as he drops those hints! We are now a corporation…forget about social security. This will be worse than being owned by the Chinese! I think they are purposely keeping Hillary out of the country because when she is here….she is a threat!

I can tell you that is why they put Neil Abercrombie in the governorship of Hawaii. He has already fired the records staff! Its just all too darn convenient and all the crap is happening and people just don’t add 2+2 and figure it out.

Mrs. Smith,
I sent that photo to Teguila…its one I took with the computer so its not good, but you can see the hairdo! Headed to Nacogdoches tonight so I won’t be on the computer much this weekend. I don’t have much time for discussion anymore…but I’m having a great time, LOL

Visitors to an exhibit in New York are invited to play at shooting Sarah Palin with a rifle. October 2008. (photo)

That Keith Olberman is a piece of work, isn’t he? This is the guy who suggested in 2008 that Hillary Clinton be discreetly murdered in order to get her out of the way. Now he has a Special Comment® devoted to the message that “violence, or the threat of violence, has no place in our democracy.” I agree, but where were you in 2008, dude?

That’s right. He was busy calling for Hillary Clinton’s death and then, when Clinton was over, foaming at the mouth about Sarah Palin. Lots of people were foaming at the mouth about Sarah Palin. There was the “art” exhibit in New York inviting people to play at shooting her with a rifle. She was hung in effigy in Los Angeles. Sandra Bernhardt said she should be raped, and not a few other people gleefully called for her death.

Palin hung in effigy in Los Angeles. October 2008. (photo)

Was there any outrage about this at the time? Only from people like me, who were running around with our hair on fire, screaming to our allegedly “progressive” brethren and sistren “UR DOIN IT WRONG!!!!!” Everybody else seemed to think it was just fine. After all, Sarah Palin really did deserve to be raped and murdered and shot and lynched because she’s a foul c— who needs to die, so what was wrong with saying so? Lighten up, b—–. What are you, a secret Republican?

snip

What is it about her (Sarah Palin) that’s so special? What could it possibly be that makes this utterly ordinary idiot Republican somehow a billion times worse than all the rest?

I’ll give you a hint: Hillary Clinton. The political right in this country spent much of the 90s and 00s obsessed with Hillary Clinton in the same way that the political left is now obsessed with Sarah Palin. To normal, rational, self-aware people (which is to say, to feminists over the age of 40), Hillary Clinton was simply a middle-of-the-road Democrat, the junior Senator from New York, an intelligent and capable politician. To the right, and to misogynists on the left, she was the focus of evil in the modern world. She was personally responsible for just about everything bad that happened, from Vince Foster’s death to the invasion of Iraq. If you weren’t exposed to the kind of rhetoric that was floating around in those days, it would be easy to underestimate it. But believe me, it was mind-boggling in its irrationality. The obsession with the woman, the fear and loathing of her, was beyond anything I’d ever seen.

Until Sarah Palin came along. Palin is the left’s Hillary Clinton. She’s the Evil Mother, the terrifying Vagina Dentata, the Monstrous Female who is somehow the cause of everything scary and bad and wrong.

It’s funny, isn’t it? Men run the world, own almost everything in it, hold almost every position of power, and yet these two women—each the first in her party to become a serious contender for presidential office—are somehow responsible for everything bad. Somehow they’re in charge, somehow they’re the worst, somehow they are the fount of evil.

This, kids, is our old friend Patriarchy at work. Or, to be more specific, it’s the remnants of the thousands of years of cultural patriarchy we inherited and are only now beginning to change. Women in a patriarchy must be kept under control at all times. Any woman who escapes that control is, automatically, dangerous. Far more dangerous than any man can ever be, because a) she’s threatening to subvert the proper order of things, and because b) uppity women are unnatural and morally depraved.

This is not top-of-mind stuff; it’s not rational or logically derived. It’s deep-seated, incoherent, gut-level Fear of Women. It’s why the junior Senator from New York was personally blamed for the deaths of thousands of Iraqi babies. It’s why the former Governor of Alaska is now somehow personally responsible for the behavior of a schizophrenic shooter in Arizona. It’s why, in a world still owned and run by men, somehow the most terrifying figures are the handful of women who have crawled to the top.

********************************************

so true and throw in all the current repub women who dare to speak their mind…they are also all “crazy”…and as long as the dem women continue to toe the line and do not dare oppose O and his male Chicago posse, then they will be fine…but if say, a Debbie Wasserman or Gillebrand went off the reservation, there would be hell to pay…

Moon,
How convenient that they made the “dog trainer” a drug head and alcoholic. What a great thing to release to the media about your dog trainer. Something is fishy about this one too. Several have died recently too.

I am confounded that newt’s statements about Iowa have not gathered more comments or attention. For me Iowa was an awakening in 2008. I was a life long somewhat active democrat and I was appalled by what transpired. I was one of those dems good repugs bad people. Even owned a t-shirt which read Friends don’t let friends vote republican. Oh the shame. Seems to me that the RNC wants to marginalize Palin and if she opts to run will use Iowa to do so. I have gone from I get a kick out of Sarah Palin’s spunk to looking up cheap flats in Iowa so I too can play the bambi game.
Funny thing the more the press bashes her the more vociferious I have become in her defense, now my extended family has informed me that they are fascinated by her but had reservations as they believed she was homophobic! They claim to l word me and voted based on that. I found it touching but stupid.

The father of Christina Green, the youngest of six people killed January 8 at U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ meet-and-greet outside an Arizona supermarket, told CNN Friday that some of his daughter’s organs “went to a little girl in Boston.”

“It was very poignant to find out. That’s what Christina was all about,” John Green said. “It’s a blessing.”

Asked whether he and his wife would like to meet the girl who received the organ one day if she were willing, John Green said, “Oh yes, and I’d give her a big hug.”

On Thursday, Christina’s family, friends, classmates and hundreds of mourners filled St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Tucson for a funeral, all of them passing under a giant American flag that was recovered in the aftermath of the terror attacks in New York on September 11, 2001 – the day Christina was born.

Dozens of mourners paid their respects by standing outside the church, which was at capacity.

Representatives from professional baseball also were in attendance. Green was the daughter of a Major League Baseball scout and the granddaughter of former baseball manager Dallas Green.

The girl’s father was the only speaker. Before the tearful crowd, he spoke directly to his departed daughter: “Christina-Taylor Green,” he began, “I can’t tell you how much we all miss you.”

“I think you have affected the whole country,” John Green said.

Pink and white flowers, along with pink bows, adorned the church. The University of Arizona choir sang “Ave Maria.” Family friend Katy Martin sang Billy Joel’s “Lullaby.” “Goodnight, my Angel, time to close your eyes,” the song began.

Christina, 9, had recently been elected to the student council at Mesa Verde Elementary School, and a neighbor, impressed with Christina’s civic interest, took her to the event to meet Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Obots will storm the caucuses for the weakest Republican against Obama and make him/her win. Doesn’t Newt know that? It is like Rush Limbaugh telling his people to go vote in the primary against Hillary.
————-
Sounds to me like the exact same thing that happened running McCain.

The Obots don’t like Sarah one ounce, but they would love for her to run against the Pretender. They know she is a ‘weak’ Rethug candidate.

———-
henry, I will never vote for Barry no matter if Charlie Manson ran against him. I would vote for a third party person or do a write in first. I also will never vote for a bad Rethug like the gecko or mitts.
Hell no!!

This Iowa thing just irritates the hell out of me…cheating and then having the freaking press declare the winner right then…it is just horrible.
Illinois right next to Iowa and several other states so they can send in the mob to affect the outcome….what is wrong with people that they haven’t figured this out….our elections are NO better than the ones in Afganistan.
People haven’t hired the real Potus in years for the exception of Bill C. when he outsmarted them….I hope he’s figuring out something now….cause the world run by corporations is a really scary thought!

Oh the thought of that little child is just more than I can imagine. Losing a child is terrible….I hope they fry that nutcase!

I understand they are replacing the breathing tube into Gabby again…they can only put one through the nose or mouth for a certain amount of days, after that they have to do a traceotomy. So I wonder if she’s doing that good? I thought she was trying to breath on her own? I’d never want to have a breathing tube or for that matter that elaborate of brain surgery…I’d be ready to meet Jesus before I would want to go thru all that!

IF they did a tracheotomy, she’s still on the vent. They don’t do those for the fun of it. Usually though its about 7 to ten days…I guess its been that long. I wonder if they’ll ever get her off of it? They prolly want to free up her mouth to see if she can move her lips to speak. I wonder how old her children are? What a terrible waste! She sounds like a gifted politician who actually cared about the voters and not a manchurian candidate.

Drudge has a headline that says Obama planning on spending one billion for re-election….why don’t these fools pay down the national debt with that money and let us (we the people) select the next Potus???? It sure as hell won’t be Obama….I think we’ve been taken over already and we are sunk!

Have they investigated the itinerary of the shooter leading up to the event? He is said to have checked into a motel? Why? Was he alone; did he have visitors? Whom did he call? What calls did he receive either on the motel phone or his cell phone? What about the man he showed up with at the scene of the crime, possibly a cab driver? Has that been looked into? Do gunsmiths say he posed for the self-photo in his underwear with the same Glock? Where, in the motel room, etc.?

You know I read that they took her off the ventilator and did the trach, but inserted a breating tube….well that is a play on words….a breathing tube is connected to a machine called a ventilator. What the heck are they trying to do…this poor woman is going to be a vegetable. They took off half her skull, so go figure how much brain is involved. They used this poor woman for political gain….Nasty and Odumbo did this…cold blooded sob’s aren’t they!

So one of the survivors who is now blaming the Tea Party actually was threatening one of the TP members at a townhall meeting recently, and was escorting out by the police officers. THe lame media of course will not be covering any of this.

“(KGUN) –The meeting room at St. Odilia’s Catholic Church on the city’s northwest side was packed with local dignitaries, witnesses to the mass shooting Jan. 8, some of the witnesses to the shootings and the first responders to the scene for a taping of an ABC-TV special, a town hall event, at 11 a.m. Saturday. Host of the program, This Week, is Christianne Amanpour. The show will air at 7 a.m. Sunday on KGUN9-TV.

…

Toward the end of the town hall meeting Saturday morning, one of the shooting victims, J. Eric Fuller, took exception to comments by two of the speakers: Ariz. state Rep. Terri Proud, a Dist. 26 Republican, and Tucson Tea Party spokesman Trent Humphries.

According to sheriff’s deputies at the scene, Fuller took a photo of Humphries and said, “You’re Dead.”

and it looks like this lefty survivor was arrested by the police for threatening the Tuscon Tea Party head person recently at a townhall meeting, and the TP head of Tuscon is now receiving death threats because of accusations of this same survivor.

“The unhinged J. Eric Fuller was charged with with threats and intimidation and he also will be charged with disorderly conduct.” — from the article at the link previously posted.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) has introduced a little-noticed bill that intends to once again renew controversial provisions of the Bush administration’s USA Patriot Act that are due to expire this year.

When the act was first signed into law, Congress put in some “sunset” provisions to quiet the concerns of civil libertarians, but they were ignored by successive extensions. Unfortunately, those concerns proved to be well founded, and a 2008 Justice Department report confirmed that the FBI regularly abused their ability to obtain personal records of Americans without a warrant.

The only real sign of strong opposition to the act was in 2005, when a Democratic threat to filibuster its first renewal was overcome by Senate Republicans.

Since the bill introduced by Rogers on Jan. 5 was virtually identical to the extension passed last year, its passage was seen as likely.

“Given the very limited number of days Congress has in session before the current deadline, and the fact that the bill’s Republican sponsor is only seeking another year, I think it’s safe to read this as signaling an agreement across the aisle to put the issue off yet again,” the libertarian Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez wrote.

“In the absence of a major scandal, though, it’s hard to see why we should expect the incentives facing legislators to be vastly different a year from now,” he added. “I’d love to be proven wrong, but I suspect this is how reining in the growth of the surveillance state becomes an item perpetually on next year’s agenda.”

As senator, Obama promised to support reforming the Patriot Act, but voted in favor of extending it in 2005 and 2008. Similarly, he signed last year’s extension into law with little fanfare. FBI and Department of Justice officials had consistently argued that restricting their blanket authority to conduct warrantless searches would harm national security.

Candidate Obama said in 2007 that if he were elected president there would be “no more National Security Letters [NSL’s] to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime” because “that is not who we are, and it is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists.”

Much like Obama’s vow to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, the use of NSL’s has also continued. Most recently, Obama’s Department of Justice sent a secret court order to micro-blogging site Twitter, seeking information on all 635,561 users who followed secrets outlet WikiLeaks — a list that included Raw Story. Twitter appealed the secrecy and was granted the right to reveal the government’s request.

The New York Times noted the case as placing the spotlight back on the government’s use of NSL’s.

Obama’s campaign website insisted that he has consistently said he would support a Patriot Act extension that strengthens civil liberties.

Action on his campaign pledge had yet to emerge by the start of 2011, and no significant reforms were reflected in Rep. Rogers’ proposed extension.

Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), perhaps the Senate’s strongest opponent of the Patriot Act, was defeated by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) in the 2010 mid-term elections.

It started with the announcement that Hillary would be visiting Turkey next month. Then earlier today Greece was added to the itinerary. And now the following:

Quartet sets date to revive peace process

By HERB KEINON
16/01/2011

Top officials from US, EU, UN and Russia will brainstorm in Munich on how to restart the stymied Middle East diplomatic process.

As Washington brainstorms with outside experts on how to jump-start the stymied diplomatic process in the Middle East, the European Union announced that the Quartet will hold a meeting February 5 on the sidelines of a meeting in Munich to discuss the situation.

The Quartet – comprised of the US, EU, UN and Russia – last met to discuss the diplomatic situation in September, just prior to the break-off of direct talks after the expiration of the 10-month settlement freeze.

The February meeting, announced by a German government spokesman Friday, will take place in the background of a major annual security conference, and will be attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The meeting will come amid a period of increasing regional volatility and instability, following the week’s turmoil in Lebanon and Tunisia.

The meeting also comes as the White House reportedly has set up a task force led by former national Security advisors Sandy Berger, who served under Bill Clinton, and Stephen Hadley, who was George Bush’s national security advisor, to offer suggestions to the current National Security Council.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, whose visits to the region have decreased even as White House aide Denis Ross has been here twice in the last month, held separate talks in Washington Thursday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzchak Molcho, and the PA’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.

There was no announcement made after those meetings of when Mitchell would return to the region.

State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said of the discussions that “at the working level, we are working on the core issues. We’re trying to narrow the gaps that exist. I would expect that we’ll have similar engagements, and this is all trying to build a foundation, improve trust, and try to move the parties back to direct negotiations. This is an effort that will continue.”

Crowley, meanwhile, went on the record opposing Palestinian efforts towards bringing a resolution slamming Israeli settlement activity to the UN Security Council.

Asked whether Erekat and Mitchell discussed a draft resolution on the matter, Crowley said “We have had and continue to have conversations with the Palestinians on that question.” He also said that “it is our belief that New York is the wrong forum to address these complex issues, that the parties should work to find a way back to direct negotiations as the only way to resolve these difficult issues and the conflict once and for all.”

“Thousands of complaints have been filed about the gaming of the caucus system […] Nurses, waitresses do not have the luxury of switching a shift or taking a day off.”

————–

I agree. Of course they don’t. I’ve often thought, since the last presidential elections, that what is really needed at the caucuses (and polls?) is not so much the nurses and waitresses (though of course they are needed and welcome), but large strong serious men who have no toleration for dimwit brainwashed punks aiming to derail the voting process. Something like those ladies and gentlemen with motorcycles who gather to maintain the dignity proper to burials.

There are many more decent people than scumbags. But a problem that the decent people are kept to quibbling with each other over relatively inconsequential matters.

Considering writing to my representatives about doing their bleeping jobs and not getting all gushy we can sit together kind of pathetic bull noise. Really, really want to send to Casey and Toomey all the vile shite that was posted on sites like something awful during the primary in 08. I didn’t know to save screen shots back then and as such I have no record. It was beyond vile. Women who posted her were spoken about as cat woman women who they would plunge knives into. Again beyond dispicable but if any posters here have the screenshots I will spend hours getting it out. Freaking astro-turfing borderline boys advocated rape with a sharp object upon a woman simply because she supported Hillary. Many instances. People look at me like I am insane when I speak about astroturfing. It happened we know it so let’s put it out there.

Tucson tea party leader Trent Humphries was threatened today during an interview with ABC.

While Trent was speaking at the event, an audience member screamed, “Trent Humphries, you’re dead!

ABC News held a town hall event today in Tucson, Arizona. Local officials, friends and heroes were at the event. News anchor Christiane Amanpour was the host. The segment will air tomorrow. ABC gathered members from the Tucson community to discuss the tragic shooting last Saturday that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and left 6 people dead.

State Representative Terri Proud was at the event sitting between Trent and the violent audience member. Terri was there to speak about the local gun laws. She described the scene to me just minutes ago:

Trent Humphries, the Pima County tea party leader, stood up to speak during the event. He was being very respectful. Trent told the audience that before we start placing blame on individuals we need to get all the facts. Trent then told everyone that one of those killed during the shooting was his neighbor and that he was affected like everyone else by the tragedy… While Trent was speaking- And it was planned that he would speak- One member in the audience and reportedly one of the victims of the tragedy started screaming, “Trent Humphries you’re dead!” The police immediately escorted him out. On his way out he screamed, “You’re all whores.”

The ABC producer said he was not sure if they will show incident tomorrow, or not.

Trent was finished with his statement and sat down. Terri said she was concerned since she was sitting right between Trent and this violent leftist. Trent sat down and ABC continued with the taping. Two police officers jumped in immediately to remove the violent leftist.

Trent Humphries has been receiving death threats all week since the national media and their leftist cohorts began blaming the tea party for the shooting by the leftwing pothead. Currently, government officials are checking his mail for him due to the threats.

Please keep Trent and his young family and all the Tucson tea party members in your thoughts and prayers.

UPDATE….. The unhinged leftist J. Eric Fuller was charged with with threats and intimidation and he also will be charged with disorderly conduct.

I came here because I have to tell someone that Reince Priebus looks like PeeWee Hermon and Reince Priebus sounds and looks like a name he would make up. I keep thinking Prince Rriebus when ever I see his name and wonder if his parents were having a joke.

Julius Baer Whistleblower To Expose 2,000 High Net Worth Tax Evaders To The World

Two years ago when the US bailed out UBS and Switzerland from a brief but potentially terminal liquidity crisis, it succeeded in extracting a historic pound of flesh: it forced UBS to declassify thousands of bank accounts of US tax evaders which was the first nail in the centuries-old concept of Swiss bank secrecy.

Today, Rudolf Elmer, a former COO of one of the biggest Swiss banks, Julius Baer, may have just nailed the last, and with that set off a chain reaction that will force a huge outcry against pervasive global tax fraud (but likely achieve nothing ultimatel).

According to the Guardian, tomorrow Elmer will hand over details of 2,000 “high net worth individuals and corporations” to WikiLeaks which will make him “the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history.” And since among those exposed will be “approximately 40 politicians” expect all hell to break loose as photos of Assange having a underage orgy with Al Qaeda members are suddenly made public to diffuse what is bound to be another huge (if brief – after all human kind cannot bear very much reality).

From the Guardian:

British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, “approximately 40 politicians”.

Elmer, who after his press conference will return to Switzerland from exile in Mauritius to face trial, is a former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands and employee of the powerful Julius Baer bank, which accuses him of stealing the information.

He is also – at a time when the activities of banks are a matter of public concern – one of a small band of employees and executives seeking to blow the whistle on what they see as unprofessional, immoral and even potentially criminal activity by powerful international financial institutions.

This is interesting: after all it was Zero Hedge that about 18 months ago suggested that all financial professionals should be very concerned: after all, all it takes is one sloppy firing, or one departure without the appropriate non-disparagement and non-truth telling clause, and all hell could break loose as those who were part of the inner sanctum suddenly find themselves on the outside… and wanting revenge. Elmer is just first of many. In the meantime, we hope that every single hedge fund, starting with that particular one in Stamford and going all the way down, has made plans regarding termination of its employees. All it takes is one person who believes they may have been wrongfully terminated to approach the SEC themselves, or, even worse, some blog or alleged terrorist organization with a penchant for disclosing the truth…

A speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. was given by NY Senator Robert F. Kennedy on April 4, 1968, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kennedy was campaigning for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. He had spoken at the University of Notre Dame and Ball State University earlier that day.

The Indianapolis chief of police warned Kennedy that the police could not provide adequate protection for the senator if the crowd were to riot, but Kennedy decided to go speak to the crowd regardless. Standing on a podium mounted on flatbed truck, Kennedy spoke. He was the first to inform the audience of King’s assassination. 100 cities had riots. Not Indianapolis.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’m only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because I have some… some very sad news for all of you. Could you lower those signs, please?… I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it’s perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black — considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible — you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization — black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with — be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

But we have to make an effort in the United States. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.

My favorite poem, my… my favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote:

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King… yeah, it’s true… but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love… a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We’ve had difficult times in the past, but we… and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it’s not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.

And let’s dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.

What is most disturbing in this article is the obama administration’s reaction… “The Obama administration, which chose to join this council, had a representative present, and neither he nor any other council member budged. UN officials, who routinely interrupt anything they deem insulting to Muslim states, said nothing.”
——————-

How much anti-Semitism is too much?

By ANNE BAYEFSKY
01/15/2011

Recent incidents at the United Nations indicate that most UN diplomats do not know where to draw the line, letting hate speeches drag on without walking out.

Recent incidents at the United Nations indicate that most UN diplomats do not know where to draw the line, letting hate speeches drag on without walking out.

Recent WikiLeaks cables reveal that diplomats at the UN are haunted by a thorny question: How much UN-driven anti-Semitism is too much? The original UN was built on the ashes of the Jewish people and owes its human rights foundations to the victims of the Holocaust. At today’s UN, we have now learned, diplomats hunker down near the General Assembly hall “listening outside with headphones on” trying to figure out the extent of the hate-speech that those on the inside should endure before walking out.

The particular subject of the WikiLeaks cable from US officials in Stockholm was a September 2009 assembly speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Sweden held the EU’s rotating presidency, and it fell upon Swedish diplomats to decide when Ahmadinejad had crossed pre-arranged “red lines.” As it turned out, some EU members walked out of the speech, while Sweden stayed put. According to the cable, the Swedes were upset by the “embarrassing lack of EU coordination” – not by the bigotry broadcast over the UN global megaphone.

What had the Europeans confused would seem to be Jewish conspiracy theory 101. Ahmadinejad had used his UN platform to describe Jews as “a small minority [who] dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery… to attain its racist ambitions.” Yet this roused a mere 11 of the UN’s 192 members from their seats, including the US. Israel had chosen not to attend.

Five months earlier in April 2009, Ahmadinejad had mounted another UN-provided stage in Geneva and began by denying the Holocaust, claiming that the “Zionist regime” had been created “under the pretext of Jewish sufferings.” At this “antiracism” gathering (dubbed “Durban 2”) he continued: “The word Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religion and abuses religious sentiments to hide their hatred and ugly faces.” This time UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remained glued to their chairs. Nine states, including the US and Israel, had decided to boycott beforehand, while the remaining EU states and a few others belatedly got up and left.

In September 2010 Ahmadinejad used his UN invitation to New York to suggest that 9/11 was an inside job – “segments within the US government orchestrated the attack” for the sake of “the Zionist regime.” On this occasion seven countries, including the US, headed for the doors. Israel had previously figured out it was not worth going.

PLAYING MUSICAL chairs is not the only response to UN-based anti- Semitism. The vast majority listen attentively and many applaud. Sometimes no one moves at all. On June 8, 2010, the Syrian representative lectured the UN Human Rights Council: “Israel… is a state that is built on hatred… Let me quote a song that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they go to school and I quote ‘With my teeth I will rip your flesh. With my mouth I will suck your blood.’”

The Obama administration, which chose to join this council, had a representative present, and neither he nor any other council member budged. UN officials, who routinely interrupt anything they deem insulting to Muslim states, said nothing.

Years of UN-driven anti-Semitism have clearly deadened the nerve endings of democracies. On November 29 and 30, 2010 the UN General Assembly sponsored its annual UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People followed by the usual anti- Israel agenda items.

From center stage in New York via Libya and Syria came the following: “Zionism, in reality, is the worst form of racism”; “The cancerous settlement in all the Palestinian territories”; “Israel shows and rears its ugly face”; “The word Israel has become synonymous with words such as aggression, killing, racism, terrorism.”

Numerous states voiced their opposition to “Judaization” – UN vocabulary for the crime of any Jew on any Arab territory. They bellowed about Israeli “butchering,” “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” “genocide,” “racism,” “brutality,” “crimes against humanity,” “torture,” “killing in cold blood” and “barbarism.” Guilt started “over 60 years ago” – that is, with Israel’s creation.

It would not have been difficult for listeners to discern that the fabrication of a cancerous Jewish state with its bloodthirsty ugly Jewish occupants was anti-Semitism. But not a single country moved. No UN gavel interrupted the speakers. Just the diplomatic niceties of thanking and bowing before Mr. President and Mr. Ambassador, and excellencies and distinguished delegates.

By the end of a year of double-standards, discrimination and hate-mongering 80 percent of all 2010 General Assembly resolutions criticizing specific countries for human rights violations were directed at the Jewish state. Only six of the remaining 191 UN member states faced human rights criticism at all, one of which was the US. And now half of the country-specific condemnatory resolutions and decisions ever adopted by the UN Human Rights Council target Israel.

THIS YEAR will be worse, as UN headquarters prepares to host the first summit of “heads of state and government” on racism in September. “Durban 3,” named after its notorious 2001 namesake that took place in Durban, South Africa, is aimed at “mobilizing political will…for the full and effective implementation of the Durban Declaration.” This declaration charges Israel with racism and names no other state.

In contrast to Durban 1 and 2 which were attended by very few world leaders, Durban 3 is intended to be the golden ticket for Ahmadinejad and company to promote Zionism is racism. From a New York podium, a few days after the 10th anniversary of 9/11, they will also instruct Americans about tolerance. Though Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused to attend, Obama is still undecided.

In June 1979 Pope John Paul II made a nine-day pilgrimage to Poland, documented in a moving recent film Nine Days that Changed the World. With the power of faith and moral conviction he appealed to millions for change, turning the Soviet empire inside out. What a contrast to the European Union representatives of today hiding in UN halls with their earphones, and the Obama administration confounded about whether to come or go.

Where are the world leaders of our time who are prepared to challenge and repudiate with the power of faith and moral conviction a UN empire that is a shell of Eleanor Roosevelt’s vision and inimical to our dearest values?

The writer is the director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

he Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 26% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14 (see trends).

Southern Born
January 16th, 2011 at 9:50 am
On “Meet the Press” this morning are David Gregory, David Brooks?, Peggy Noonan, Al Sharpton, Tim Shriver

When talking about BO’s speech in AZ, all of them get the look on their faces of Sally in “When Harry Met Sally” in the YES, YES, YES scene.

Can’t watch any more of this.
****************************
I had the same reaction. MSM keeps giving the same pretentious biased pundits a forum on these shows. It’s planned to sway unthinking viewers to a single point of view.

“Detroit was once America’s fourth largest city, though today large sections of its inner core are abandoned to the elements, and monuments like Michigan Central Station are returning to dust. Another emblem of civic decline is a plan to desert nearly half of Detroit’s public schools so that it can afford to fulfill its teachers union contract.“

The channels are stating the Americans have soften there objections to the obamacare then they add the word SOME. What in the hell does that mean? Who did he survey, and what was the questions.

Well at least they added the word SOME. I don’t know why hey continue to call themselves new stations. They might as well state that they report the news SOMEWHAT. At least everyone would understand it is a bit flacky. We report the news KINDA would also be good.

Though it’s common for U.S. presidents to leave their successors a note on inauguration day, the contents tend to be secret. But a note President George H.W. Bush left for incoming President Bill Clinton on Jan. 20, 1993, has come to light, revealing that Bush told the man who defeated him, “Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.”

The note, sent to author Brad Meltzer by Bush, includes some advice: “There will be very tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not think is fair. I’m not a very good one to give advice; but just don’t let the critics discourage you or push you off course.” Added Bush: “I wish you great happiness here. I never felt the loneliness some Presidents have described.”

For supporters of Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago mayoral bid, this Tuesday’s visit from former President Bill Clinton just became a little sweeter.

According to a letter sent to supporters Saturday, a donation to Emanuel’s campaign ensures the contributor is in the running for a chance to meet the mayoral candidate and Clinton before Tuesday’s rally. A winner will be picked Monday.

The plea says the campaign needs 500 donors to “make sure our field team and volunteers have the resources needed.”

“President Clinton knows campaigns,” the letter says. “And he knows that making that extra phone call or knocking on that extra door could help us win this race.”

Emanuel worked in the Clinton White House for five years before serving as an Illinois congressman and then President Obama’s chief of staff, a post he left in the fall of last year to run for mayor.

Clinton’s windy city appearance will be his first campaign stop since the November midterm elections.

What is most disturbing in this article is the obama administration’s reaction… “The Obama administration, which chose to join this council, had a representative present, and neither he nor any other council member budged. UN officials, who routinely interrupt anything they deem insulting to Muslim states, said nothing.”
——————-

How much anti-Semitism is too much?

By ANNE BAYEFSKY
01/15/2011
______________________

Ahmadinejad, Obama, Soros and ZBig are all on the same team. Someday, the ghosts of all the dying and dead Jews Soros stole from pilfering their gold and jewels will come back to haunt him until the day he draws his last breath. He will live till then in a state of unrelenting torment and sleeplessness. Soros will wish he was dead, never knowing peace even after he passes.